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Pittsburgh Steelers running back Isaac Redman (33) sits on the bench as his team is losing to the San Diego Chargers in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. The Chargers won 34-24. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)AP

PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers expected to get a shot of momentum with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's return Sunday. They couldn't have foreseen that nearly everything else would collapse around their franchise player.

Doomed by breakdowns on offense, defense and special teams, the Steelers missed an opportunity to improve their playoff standing with a 34-24 loss to the lowly San Diego Chargers at Heinz Field.

Roethlisberger started for the first time since suffering shoulder and rib injuries in Week 10.

But thanks to a punchless running game and sagging defense, he wasn't much of a factor as San Diego surged to a 20-3 lead by dominating field position and time of possession.

By the time Roethlisberger got the Steelers' offense into the end zone, they trailed 27-3 against a team that had lost four straight and appeared headed for a major offseason overhaul.

Instead, the Chargers snapped a 14-game regular-season losing streak in Pittsburgh and denied the Steelers a chance to gain ground in the AFC North race and gain separation in the conference playoff seedings with Baltimore and Cincinnati both losing Sunday.

"When a team goes up on us 20-3, we obviously don't have enough urgency," wide receiver Mike Wallace said. "We have a great team, and we know it. We just have to get out of our own way."

The Steelers put up plenty of roadblocks for themselves Sunday. Roethlisberger was rusty early in missing open receivers, and the offensive line -- forced to re-tool again when left guard Willie Colon went down for the second week in a row with a knee injury--- experienced a series of protection lapses.

The two most costly breakdowns came when tight end David Paulson was driven back into the path of a screen pass from Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown.

The ball hit Paulson and skittered into the end zone, where San Diego's Quentin Jammer recovered for a touchdown and a 27-3 lead.

After Roethlisberger connected with Wallace for a 40-yard touchdown that cut the Chargers' lead to 27-10, Maurkice Pouncey, who slid to left guard from center in place of Colon, was beaten by Chargers defensive lineman Cam Thomas.

Roethlisberger, forced to rush his pass by the pressure, threw it right to linebacker Bront Bird at the Steelers' 17-yard line.

The Chargers needed only two plays to score, stretching it to 34-10 on a 15-yard pass from Philip Rivers to Danario Alexander.

Roethlisberger led a pair of late touchdown drives, but the game was long settled by then. Those irrelevant scores helped Roethlisberger pad his stats. He finished 22-of-42 for 285 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked twice and pressured constantly, but said after the game that his shoulder seemed to be fine.

"I never want to get hit," he said. "Right now I feel OK. I'll let you know tomorrow if I'm not feeling very good."

The Chargers ran up a 36:46-23:14 advantage in time of possession and repeatedly pinned the Steelers' offense deep with punts in the first half. The Steelers started eight of their 14 possessions inside their 20, including four of their first six.

San Diego converted a third-and-13 situation on a 17-yard run by Ronnie Brown on the opening drive of the second half, a monster 17-play series capped by a Rivers-to-Malcom Floyd touchdown for a 20-3 lead. That was followed immediately by the botched screen pass-turned-Chargers touchdown, which was upheld by replay.

"That was the game," Hampton said. "They get that long drive and then go out and score on defense. It's hard to come back from that."

The Chargers later converted on fourth-and-2 when punter Mike Scifres caught the Steelers napping and ran for 4 yards, allowing them to run off several more minutes of clock late in the third quarter.

With former starter Rashard Mendenhall a healthy inactive for the second week, the running game sputtered. Jonathan Dwyer carried eight times for 32 yards and Ike Redman was held to zero yards on two attempts.

The Steelers finished with 69 rushing yards -- 31 on scrambles by Roethlisberger -- the second time in three weeks and the fifth time this season they've failed to run for 70 yards.

The Chargers, meanwhile, managed to control the clock by rushing 36 times, including 25 carries for 65 hard-earned yards by Ryan Mathews. They converted 12-of-22 third-down opportunities and didn't commit a turnover.

"We did not have the big mistake in this football game," Chargers coach Norv Turner said.

The Steelers (7-6), meanwhile, slid a little deeper into the thickening AFC wild-card race, which became more interesting Sunday with the loss by the Bengals (7-6) and wins by the Jets (6-7), Browns (5-8) and Chargers (5-8).

"We coached poorly today, we played poorly today," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "It's a shame given the opportunity that was in front of us."

JOHN DUDLEY can be reached at 870-1677 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNdudley.